Teena Miller comes up big in helping people with laughter

Some have post traumatic stress disorder. Others perhaps a bad back. Or a psychological condition. Some are developmentally challenged. Others belong to a genius organization.

Teena Miller has found everyone -- even a bitter, grizzled war veteran -- can have a hard shell that can be cracked with laughter.

And then the healing begins. For someone who has survived breast and skin cancer with a huge grin, perhaps teaching others stress reduction via laughter was inevitable.

"You have to laugh," said Miller, in her fifth year teaching Laughter Yoga, which includes her "Laughter in the Libraries" program and the Merrill Gardens Laughter Yoga Club in Vallejo.

What started by reading a newspaper article about "a group of people laughing their heads off" became a career for Miller and her Laughing Heart Connection.

"One thing led to another and I found somebody in Vallejo who could train me so I could do classes," Miler said. "Ultimately, I wanted to do training of other people."

Miller never had a problem working with others, having been a teacher and someone who enjoyed talking and motivating other cancer survivors. She was keynote speaker at last year's Vallejo Relay for Life.

"I had to figure out why I was still on the planet while others with the same diagnosis were no longer here," Miller told the audience. "I came to the conclusion that I'm here to love as many people as I choose to and irritate the rest and, apparently, I'm very successful at both."

Miller took what she learned from Katari and modified the exercises to fit whatever group she worked with, depending on mental and physical limitations.

Now she shares her knowledge with 15 weekly classes and 200 clients around the Bay Area.

Miller told the story of a troubled soul at a psychiatric facility who was unapproachable.

"There was a new resident who was combative and cursing. When the doctors and nurses got quiet, you could hear her yelling," said Miller, who approached the resident and, without making eye contact, started exercises.

"And she started laughing," Miller said. "It began to slide into hysterical laughter, but it calmed

her down."

Through the yoga and exercise, Miller forces students to laugh and create the sounds one associates with laughter. Typically, the faux laughs become real, she said.

"When you laugh, even if it's artificial laughter, your body doesn't know the difference and the brain releases endorphins in 10 to 15 minutes," Miller said.

One gentleman at the Institute of Aging was in a wheelchair and rolled up to Miller gathering his thoughts.

"I've been working very hard to overcome my stroke. You made me laugh," he

told Miller.

"That's what it's about," she said. "And that happens all the time. I have so

many stories."

There was the war vet, a double-amputee.

"They said to not even get close," Miller said. "That he was angry, violent and drugs weren't helping. He would just glare at everyone."

But Miller gladly worked with the vet.

"He looked at me and he started smiling and he started laughing," she said. "It was amazing."

Helping people with their stress, with their lives, is something Miller finds a worthy endeavor.

"I call myself a laugh therapist," she said, "and I want people to take